Depression – Chris Hodges

hey New Life Church we're in this series clickbait and we were gonna finish it last week but I heard from my daughter Haley and she said Pastor Chris Hodges our guest speaker for today my best friend one of the overseers of our church he was speaking last weekend on the topic of depression and she said dad this really helped a lot of people and I started thinking about it for 30 years I've never preached on that topic I've talked to Chris about it he had never spoken on it either until last weekend and so I thought it would be good to bring this topic into our series clickbait because many of you have dealt with depression or you have a friend that has so I'm asking all of you for your mind to be alert for your heart to be receptive because we're never gonna be the same so all of you please welcome my friend Pastor Chris Hodges hey come on could you give Jesus the great praise everybody come on you can do better than that come on give Jesus a great praise it's awesome yes that's awesome thank you god bless you guys oh don't stop don't stop all right god bless you y'all be seated what a joy it is to be here and I do love do you love your pastor everybody come on nobody like Pastor Rick and Michelle and they have been friends if you're new to the church they've been friends of ours for over 30 years and loves love love them and love their leadership and Pastor Rick is actually ministering at an arc Church plant out in California today and will be home very soon got to be home soon because I think there's another grandbaby on the way for the bees their family coming up and and they're excited about it right over here all right doctor how many grandparents in the room grandparents grandparents present come on all the campuses you know there you are all of us would tell you I'm a grandparent now all of us would tell you that it's awesome it's just like the best thing ever can I get a good eight men from the grandparents there yeah it's awesome so for those you guys don't have grandkids don't kill your kids better ones are coming all right just hang in there just hang in there just don't kill him in fact I'm travelling today with my my son my oldest son and my daughter-in-law and they just two and a half months ago gave birth to my slurred grandson I just last week had my fourth grandson and in December gonna have my fifth grandson so I have a daughter in four boys that's not much the kids I had no daughter then four boys and now five grandsons we've got nine boys in the borough we ain't seen a girl in 29 years y'all yeah it'sit's it's incredible in fact I brought a picture I've brought a picture show them the picture of this is my this is my newest grandson I got three got hair three inches long and this is my son David children this next picture this is my son David and him holding his little son Reiser and we thought that we thought this picture was real cute and then we said son you don't hold babies like that and so we taught him and we taught him and then we there there is the right way so anyway yeah so pretty fun I'm thrilled to be here today obviously and it's an honor to serve it's part of your church government in the role of overseer that means I try to look after Pastor Rick and Michelle and just all things new life pray for you every day you don't see me but about once a year but I pray for you very often I know everything has come on hold around here and kind of looked deep into especially to your pastor to make sure he's happy and healthy and he pretty much is all the time and I love him with all my heart he and I talked several times a week and you are you are LED extremely well I'm just happy to report take my word for it that all things new life are healthy and strong and your pastors have more vision they've had in a long time in fact and come on let's give God praise come on are you glad for your church yep so one more thing one more thing before we get into God's Word and and that is today we are planning some more churches a lot of you guys know that Pastor Rick and I and three other people joined together 17 years ago to form an organization called the association of related churches and basically it's just a church planting organization we're now hundreds over eight hundred churches pull the resources together to plant churches all across there a new life in church of the Highlands were the first that were the first two churches ever planted with Ark we were kind of the prototypes almost 18 years ago and look what the Lord has done and we have now today check it out your generosity your your giving goes toward this every week but today come on everybody say today today 21 new churches in America being planted come out today and yeah I mean from from Boise Idaho to it's a small town in Florida their church is being planted all over America today and you were a part of that so your your giving is going places you'll never physically go you'll have to wait till you get to heaven to see the fruit of all that you do around here and I just want to celebrate that together last week we did I did a message we're in a series where we kind of answering some of the questions that our people have been asking just about life and and I did start off our series with this message on depression and in 35 years of ministry I've never done a message entirely dedicated to that topic which forced me to actually study on the topic a lot and I I don't really consider myself an expert let me say that right off the bat I'm not a counselor or a doctor I'm a pastor and and so I lead people to Jesus I do believe Jesus is the answer for everything and can I get a better amen anybody and I really believe that but I did want to look at it from a medical standpoint find out what's really going on here's what I discovered and that is depression is a mood disorder characterized by what they call anhedonia and had onea if you don't know that term it's it means that you you cannot experience pleasure anymore so what used to be bring you pleasure you have the inability to experience any pleasure in relationships and vacations and food and like I've lost the sense of pleasure extreme sadness poor concentration sleep problems loss of appetite and feelings of guilt helplessness and hopelessness and when I read this I thought well man that's everybody right I mean everybody I'm on that list somewhere right all of us have experienced these things and really I've come to the conclusion my conclusion after about a three week intensive study on the topic is that it is the number one health problem in the world like in the world it is the number one health problem found out that one out of every nine people are on some type of depression medication right now so one out of five have been at some point in their life in fact antidepressant medication has gone up 300% and continues to climb I'm convinced it's become the number one health problem in the world mental illness now one of the things that I have discovered through this is just is that there's a stigma on even the talk about it so if I came to you today and said I'm not feeling that great I think I have a cold you don't think any less of me because some part of my body is dysfunctional or sick but when we when the brain gets dysfunctional or sick and if we talk about mental illness it's like well away there's something really wrong with you and it's almost a stigma against it and I personally believe that's a trick of the devil because if he can put a stigma around it he can keep people from talking about it receiving prayer on it getting help by it because then you begin to tuck and hide around it because because we believe we believe you know it's not cool to have that kind of a problem I'm here to tell you that in fact if I have a single message it's this one short term guys that it's okay to not be okay so it's okay for you not to be okay in fact even on Sunday you don't have to come to church and put your Sunday best on and then your Sunday smile and your Sunday like how you doing way everything's fine how about you yeah I'm doing pretty good too and you're not right or if you're if you're in Christian circles how you doing praise the Lord everything's good hallelujah you're right you know you say those and then but you beat your kids all the way to church you know you just here and hitting them the whole way in right and then you say and then you told them in the parking lot and everybody smile and we'll deal with this when we get back home you know and yeah listen to me we've got to get to the place where we really talk about what's really going on our lives so we can let God do a great work on the inside of us in Jesus name and in fact did a lot of study out I read read this guy and if you want to go read his his his books or look at his he's done some TED talks this guy named Stephen lardy he said this about it he says we were never designed for the sedentary sedentary means stay inside kind of in front of your computer all day would be a moderate application of that indoor socially isolated and you by the way you can be isolated and alone with people all around you so just I'm not talking about proximity I'm talking about how you feel on the inside a lot of people are you're you're around people all the time but you still feel isolated we have a fast-food laden sleep-deprived frenzied pace of modern life none of us were designed for this and I've come to the conclusion that like this is what's going on he's convinced that all depression is not inherent in other words it's not just your DNA or something wrong on the inside that it is lifestyle related so it's happening because of the way we live since it's happening that because the way we live we can fix it by the way we live we can let God teach us some new principles and listen to me I'm I'm going to try to keep this light but there's really not much light about this topic because the truth is there are some of us in here right now with a fake smile on dealing with depression and it hurts and it's really a lot of it's because we are we've fallen prey to these kind of lifestyles including things like cell phone and social media use I've discovered and they've they've discovered by research that our cell phone use and really all things digital are actually reforming the brains so there's studies out not I'm not talking about Christian I'm talking about secular studies out that are showing that the that just looking at our cell phones and spending so much time on social media that the brain is actually changing you add to that the the epidemic of a lack of identity in culture so people don't know who they are in fact what those who have sexual confusion depression goes up to hundred percent just because their confide oh no who I am what I what I believe what what my orientation is and it goes way up from that then you have added to that the inability to process pay so all of us are experiencing pain the question is what are you doing about it when you get it so we usually what the what the go-to now of course is medication we have a whole generation that is overly medicated or their their their met their medicating through even binge eating or binge drinking to try to soothe the pain away then you add to that peer-to-peer mentoring meaning that we're getting our advice from those who are in the same condition as us we're the generation before us you would always find someone older than you to get advice from by the way that needs to come back can I get a better a man from New Life Church that I mean elder elder to use mentoring is biblical where when you went through something or wanted to purchase something or wanted to deal with something you actually you actually found somebody who had who's maybe twenty years ahead of you to get the advice from them but we don't have that anymore we're going to I'm telling you if I don't listen to all the 15 year olds I grew up with I would not be standing on this stage right now y'all I mean right that's how ridiculous that is and then you add to that just a complete narcissistic culture this selfie kind of a generation we live in this obsession with self I think is what's creating all of this it's lifestyle related and it can be fixed in Jesus name let me touch one area before we get into God's Word and that is that some people unfortunately choose suicide as as a solution and it's tragic in fact there will be a million people this year who will commit suicide worldwide 40,000 in America alone that's a hundred and ten a day in America are gonna take their own lives it's a growing epidemic of course as well it's the number one killer of kids 15 to 24 it's twice the murder rate so we spend a lot of time talking about how to prevent crime I think it's time for the church to be the most outspoken voice and solution to those who think come on in that right everybody get it right [Applause] and I want you to look at my eyes come on every campus that's joining us I want you to hear this and one of the things that has to happen in order for us to get past this is the ability to remove the stigma from it it's got to be okay for us to say hey I'm not okay and I need to talk about it and nobody's shocked by that in fact honestly for those of you who convinced yourself that you're the only one going through what you're going through if you had the guts to tell somebody else in this room they're not gonna go they're gonna go what you two I thought I was the only one you're going to discover that really all of us including the ones that are on the stage here just got in this hospital a little bit ahead of you we have our own Nicks and scrapes and loose screws can I get a better Amen from anybody who knows that's true right unfortunately those suicide suicide is a permanent to solve a very temporary problem that the emotions come crashing in like a way they overwhelm you and then we try to do something about it that unfortunately becomes very permanent and very irreversible just just man most people don't want to die they just want the pain to end but I've got good news for you and that is you don't have to die to in your pain I want somebody to hear that that might be at the point where I don't feel like my life would be better this is what they tell themselves my life would be better even my family would be better off if I were not here that's a lie that's a lie it's just not true and one of the most outspoken spiritual voices pastors in the nation is a pastor that you should go check out if you've ever dealt with this are dealing with this in any way and just want more than what I'm gonna give you in a few minutes here today and that's Pastor Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in California his own son who had mental illness his whole life took his life four years ago four or five years ago of course Pastor Rick and Kay are now very outspoken on the topic and one of the things they suggest and I just want to throw this out there to you I passed this on to our church and then you could see people jotting this number down because they offer this number this national Suicide Prevention lifeline this 1-800 273 talk is the number in case you ever know somebody who is dealing with that please recommend to them from what I've told from Pastor Rick this is actually saving a lot of lives it's a lot a lot of lives and I just want to be a voice of encouragement to you today and I want to try to bring some some normal sea to this topic today and tell you that God's not silent on it either in fact some of the greatest people of faith in Scripture were depressed some of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament some of the greatest leaders in the New Testament dealt with depression and I think these verses are in their own purpose so that you can say hey God's not shocked by it and God even has a solution to it one of the guys a prophet named Jeremiah wrote a whole book of your Bible about his depression he called it lamentations that's just a fancy way to say I'm having a bad life right now right and one of the verses in lamentations goes like this he says I've been deprived to peace sit this sounds familiar to you at all I have forgotten and that's a key word by the way I've forgotten what prosperity is we sing it today in our in our worship time and I thought man they would have good a great song God is so good and chances are a bunch of you sing it not really not really feeling it but you just chose to sing it so that you can believe it again that's what worship is by the way worship is this process where your problems are huge and your God is small and God is so good god is so good god is and your God gets big again and your problems get small again every Sunday we put our problems back in their proper place come on somebody right that's that's what worship really is but he says I've forgotten what prosperity is so I say my splendor is gone and all that I've hoped for in the Lord watch this he said so I remember and this is his problem I am remembering my affliction am i wandering that the psychologist call that ruminating go study that is it it's interesting concept because they say there's actually this thing that's happening in front of our computers by ourselves and psychologists call it ruminating ruminating is what animals like cows do when they chew swallow Oh regurgitate it chew it again swallow regurgitate it to it again and by the way the more times you bring it back up the grosser it gets and we do that in our thoughts we're ruminating so we start we start thinking by ourselves about how we feel about our family and then the more we chew on it swallow it and regurgitate it the worse it gets to me start lying to ourselves it's called self-talk and it's okay to feel bad about things it's not okay for you to have that conversation by yourself trying to help you guys today are you alright everybody if I breathe in breathe out it's okay so the brick disease I'm just sitting here thinking about my fliction am i wandering my bitterness and my gall and I well remember them he says and my soul got downcast well of course it did what'd you think was gonna happen what you're gonna sit there and think about that that's why I honor you again today every location every person who came to this great church 17 locations come on think about it it got together today to sing songs about what we believe why because we're trying to get away from the ruminating self-talk we've had all week long and put our God back on his proper place Paul did the same thing by the way in the New Testament just to give you a New Testament example and he said in second Corinthians he says I don't want you to be uninformed and I don't want you to be uninformed either that even great people great leaders go through depression and Paul who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament got depressed about the troubles he experienced the province of Asia watch this he says I was under great pressure far beyond my ability to endure that I've wanted to die I was despairing of life and that's literally he was saying I don't think I could live anymore I don't think I could take this anymore and I think I think God that that God included in Holy Scripture a great leader saying look it was tough for me sometimes to and and again if you hear anything today it's just that we've got to bring something that has had a stigma we got to keep mental illness I mean it's okay for my heart to be sick but I can't have my head being sick no no that's an organ of your body too that God can heal in Jesus name and they're really in any difference they men everybody so let me finish today's message with a story that gives you four causes for solutions that if you ever find yourself depressed or know somebody who is this story kind of summarizes it all together in first Kings chapter 18 the great prophet Elijah had one of the best stories ever happened in scripture where he had a showdown with 400 prophets of the devil called prophets a bale they had this spiritual showdown to determine whose God was alive and so what they did they both Elijah and then these other prophets of bale had created altars killed animals and they said let's both call out to our God and see which God shows up so the prophets of mail oh they cried out did whatever prophets a bale do and nothing nothing happened and then Elijah said hey just to show you my god is awesome let's soak our altar and our sacrifice completely in water let's make it where it cannot physically burn and of course the power of God came down and consumed by fire this water soaked sacrifice it was a great victory well this evil King Ahab and his Queen Jezebel found out about it and said this in the next chapter he says a half toe Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword watch this so Jezebel sent a message to Elijah and the watcher remember he just he just stood face-to-face to 400 men and now this one woman says to Elijah made the gods deal with me be it ever so severely if by this time tomorrow you and you're not gonna be as dead as they are I'm when other words I'm gonna kill you I'm this one woman posed an empty threat by the way which was which was a complete lie there was no way possible for Jezebel to kill Elijah watch this but he believed it so he could stand face to face with all these prophets of Bel and one empty threat put him on the run by the way let me teach you something right there a lot of depression does it come in your lowest of lows it comes many times after your highest of highs so I was pretty transparent with my church last Sunday I'll be pretty transparent with you as well get more attacked by the devil on Sunday nights than any other time of the week we could have tens of thousands of people show up to church hundreds saved and I'll go home and obsess over one sentence I wish I wouldn't have said in my message and the devil bring all these empty threats that people are gonna get mad about that and they're not gonna have like that and and you're gonna hear this you're gonna get this even and none of its ever true but I'm telling you the enemy will try to find even your highest of highs sometimes when you let down your guard to attack you in Elijah the Bible says ran he was afraid and ran for his life and when he came to Beersheba and I watch the details in Judah he left his servant there no words he said to the guy he was traveling with I don't want you coming with me I want to deal with this by myself bad move Elijah bad move you don't ever need to process this stuff by yourself you are the last person you should be getting counseling from whenever you're in a bad place that's good preaching right there I don't care what y'all say right no he said you stay here I need to process this by myself no you don't know you don't and while he himself went a day's journey by himself into the wilderness he came to a broom brush sat down under it that's a little short tree that could provide some shade and he prayed that he might die and he says Lord I have had enough come on how many all guys that's your theme verse right now right I I have had enough take my life now watch this last line I am no better than my ancestors why in the world was he thinking about other people at that point and Jared and Elijah did four things that i'ma tell you will put you in a bad place and the first is faulty thinking just you just you start believing lies and again this faulty thinking comes from this ruminating I'm encouraging you not to have self-talk and not to sit by yourself all the research is showing that a lot of the depression is coming from when we're alone thinking and letting that thinking's be swallowed regurgitated brought back up in a much grosser form and whenever we have these sedentary inside life in fact they prove and that when you're around people and when you're outside and we have sunlight that the mental illness and depression goes down dramatically so we know this was he was doing all the wrong things he was thinking bad thoughts and again I'm preaching to the choir today because you chose to come to a place and and for some of you it took a lot of effort and some of you even wonder why you do it all the time you need to keep doing it regardless of how you feel get to church get to church get to church get to church everybody get to church why because you're gonna get in here and you're going to hear the words of life and people are going to encourage you and that's why the Bible says finally brothers whatever is true noble right lovely pure admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy show them the next verse guys the next slide think about these things you ask what you need to be think about and if you do the God of peace will be with you I believe that's gonna happen today just because you decided to come to church and you weren't sure who God was but then we saying God is so good and then this crazy guy from this LSU guy from the Alabama why didn't the Lord well I had in the world did he put me in Alabama y'all help me pray for me pray for me I'm in the enemy territory Jesus help me Lord God all right no just to encourage you today and just to tell you man you're gonna make it you're gonna make it you're gonna make it here buddy you're gonna make it but you're not gonna make it if you do this second thing that that Elisha did and that is he isolated himself so that's why we're a church of groups so let me say it this way life groups here at New Life Church are not for your your entertainment they are a necessity because right now you can still come in this place on a Sunday smiles sing and leave and never said a word to someone that's not going to happen in a group no we're gonna get there and say hey what's going on well I'm doing pretty good no you're not tell me the truth no no really I'm doing are I'm doing all right no no I could tell your line honey lock the door he's not leaving til he tells us what's going on because groups aren't another little mini Bible study that's not a place for you to have a smaller church service groups from hopefully the place where you get close enough to somebody we have the guts to take off the mask and say can I tell you what's really going on that's what I have in your pasture by the way he yeah he he calls that's the phone call I get on set on Sunday nights hey Chris what's going on I'm doing great yeah I know that that was talking to you right now what's really going on cuz you tell your burrito me that she struggled on Sunday nights yeah no no I know and and then I encouraged him to yeah just how are you doing Ricky I'm doing good because he's always happy right he's just always happy but is he really only I know y'all alright I'm not tellin y'all all right so what are we doing what are we doing we're doing the reality of Ecclesiastes it says a person standing alone can be attacked and say the next word out loud and yeah you try it by yourself good luck to you but to that's what Rick and I do we stand back-to-back he's looking this way while I look that way right and we concur and three or even better getting a group getting a group getting a group hey everybody getting a group getting a group find a group getting a group here's my message for you get a group alright getting a group for a triple braided cord is not easily broken you you get some other people around your life you're gonna be okay why because I'm with somebody I can say hey I'm not doing so well I got your back I've got your back I'm gonna stand back-to-back and then then then the next time they're going down you're like okay I'm doing better now I got your back I've got your back third thing that Elijah did is he he felt so bad about his life and what he had done and how he was running and acting like a coward he was literally being led by feelings this is one of my favorite things to preach because the whole world is validating feelings now about this is the medicine feelings are real they're just not true let's say that again feelings are real they're just not accurate please do not listen to your feelings do not live by your feelings don't trust your feelings your emotions will go up and down with everything in the world going on do not be led by them we are the people of God we are led by facts we are by we're led by truth and even when culture goes through things well if it feels good do it no it doesn't no no no no no in fact it feels good you probably need to ask the question about it and make sure you don't do it right now right everybody we live we live by a set of truths and it's the true Jesus said you need to know the truths not your feelings because it's the truth that will set you free and the final thing after so after he basically had bad thinking isolated was to feeling spaced he finally said well I'm really no better than somebody else what in the world is he playing the comparison game for I'm going to tell you why it happens in this generation I got one word for you Instagram can I get a better Amen from anybody who knows what I'm talking about yeah because you see everybody's highlight reel all the time you compare your miserable days with their highlight reel you look at you you look at somebody's newly remodeled kitchen then you look over at yours it's all messed up right and then you go borrow money that you do not have to keep up with that person listen we gotta go we gotta get out of the comparison game and this Paul said am I am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God am i trying to please people no of course not he says if I were still trying to please people I would not be a servant of Christ no I live for an audience of one can I get a good amen somebody I had to tell you for the sake of time I have to tell you most of the rest of story I read you a few verses because basically he says he laid down under that brush tree come on this is this but there's a little preach in this and he fell asleep the first thing that happened to solve Elijah's depression listen to me wasn't spiritual it was natural let me say it another way he took a nap come on y'all I'm helping you out man I'm helping y'all out you know honey I know told you I was gonna mow that grass today but that pastor came in and said it's a word of the Lord that I take it come on man I'm on your side help me out he fell asleep watch this and an angel showed up not in church in his nap come on I'm helping y'all out today and he touched him and look with the angel said he did say open your Bible or pray no he said get up in ya hold him in her like yeah I love this new pastor Harris I was a good man there and he looked around and and by his head with some bread come on all you paleo people this is the word of the Lord right right here tell me about protein the Bible says bread it doesn't say butter but I am sure it's in the text somewhere and he ate and drank look what he did he took another now come on y'all this is your prescription for this afternoon this is this is it this is the words of the Lord and the angels showing the next verse of the Lord came and back a second time touch them and said get up and eat for the journey is too much for you so he got up and he ate and he drank and he's strengthened by food I think it's so interesting he traveled 40 days 40 nights till it reached Horeb the mountain of God now he's going to have a spiritual encounter with God and he went to the cave for a night and you have to read through verse 19 to get the rest of the story for the sake of the time let me tell you to you because after he actually spent that time with God God showed himself powerfully in Earth Wind and Fire and then he came y'all thought that was a music group that's in the Bible and then he came in a still small voice and then he gave them a set of instructions and here's the first thing and that is four things we see as a solution I'm giving it to you for every person who's depressed or ever will be you got to get healthy physically yeah slow down a little bit listen to me you got to take more naps eat more bread and then take another nap now I'm very serious here I'm playing around a little bit but I'll be very serious here when you Sabbath's what you've done today you've come to church give God the whole day so go take a walk put on a golf tournament and then fall didn't don't watch any of it right everybody sleep through the whole thing because in vain the psalm says you rise early and stay up late toiling for food but God grants sleep to those he loves God's trying to slow you down he he makes me lie down in green pastures and if you don't lie down he'll make you lie down hey everybody look at my eyes slow down don't follow the world's rhythm slow down and the second thing that he did is he poured his heart out to God I would add is important not only to pour your heart out to God but also pour your heart out to others somebody needs to know how you feel and by the way God can handle how you feel God was not shocked by a largest complaints so Elijah's actually starts lying well I'm the only one that's serving you well no that's fairly not true Elijah but God let him say that to him and you'd listen to me God invites you to healing today Jesus said it this way come to me o you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest I will give you rest not just for your body but also for your soul that your soul could be at rest thank you for coming to church today but listen to me it's important for us to pour our hearts out to God and our souls out to God and I even submit it's important to pour it out with a small group of people where you can be honest and say look this is what I'm going through alright that's okay it's okay and then remember he had the Earth Wind and Fire God came in an earthquake came in a strong wind and he came in a fire then in a still small voice and that shows us and number three how important it is to experience both God's power and God's presence they're very different but God our God is a powerful awesome consuming earthquake win and fire kind of God but he's also that still small voice and I'm encouraging you to turn the world's volume down and give God some space some of you need to get aside today just maybe go take a walk through the neighborhood or maybe go get a lawn chair underneath a tree and feel the breeze come across your face just have some time with God you don't have to King James God you just need to be honest with God the Bible says be still and know as if it's saying you'll never know until you're still well I don't know where God is because you're moving too fast I can't hear God yeah there's too many competing voices I'm not preaching to anybody today are y'all right I'm just trying to help you just give you exactly the prescription that Elijah God and here's the last one and we're gonna pray but God gave him a new set of instructions and we've got to let God give us a new purpose in a new direction for our life the last thing do you read in that text is he said hey go anoint this person now go anoint this person and go get Elijah and make him your protege go pour your life into another person and I might a it's a real secret that the real secret to overcoming depression listen to me is to have something in your life bigger than your problems let me say it this way you can try to solve your problems if you want or you can have something in your life bigger than your problems and Paul said it this way he says even he says we don't lose heart without Paul even though I'm out really wasting away in really I'm being renewed how Paul how are you doing that oh I'll tell you my light and momentary troubles are achieving for us a glory eternal glory that far outweighs them in other words I have something eternal that I'm living for that's out weighing my problems so I fixed my eyes not on what is seen but it's unseen because these temporary things are a problem so I'm not gonna focus on that I'm gonna focus on the eternal if you'll give your life to something that matters so I had depression in 1999 like clinical like I needed to go to the hospital I've never been depressed in my life I'm sick with depression I mean sick with depression and I told Tammy I said I think I need to be checked into a facility that was that depressed still living in Baton Rouge at the time and we went through 21 days of prayer and fasting at our church and on the 17th day I saw the picture of me standing and I saw what is now our broadcast location I saw it exactly like we have built it to this day and life came back in me listen to me just because I got a new vision for my life and I never really solved what was wrong with me I just had something in my life bigger than that and some of you guys need that you've sat in these chairs far too long it's time for you to get in the game and do something go serve somewhere park a car for heaven's sakes run a camera lead a group do something and watch God bring purpose to your life in Jesus name father I thank you for this amazing church and God only you know what's really going on inside the hearts of every person here today and what they're dealing with and with a feeling and what their their their their issues are in their souls and I pray God that today that the stigma the the the thing that makes us stay quiet is removed in the name of Jesus for the problems of isolation and feelings lead and comparison and all the all the lies of the devil broken in Jesus name off our lives God I pray for healing I pray God this message give somebody the guts to come forward and say I need some help I need some help god I pray that you give them a family in your presence and a purpose to live for touch them like only you can with every head bow before I leave this stage I always like to give people an opportunity to give their life to Jesus or if you're already a Christian to get your life with God right again so you just know your snot right and by the way here's how you'll know is you feel the weight you feel the guilt like you feel like you're carrying the load of your life by yourself listen to me you don't have to jesus paid it all and you can give it to him today and it doesn't mean joining this church that's a good thing to do but you can join Jesus today I'm not gonna make you stand up not gonna call you to the front but if you're here today say Chris I need to get some things right with God I'm gonna give you one opportunity just to let God know right there where you are if that's you lift your hand up put it right back down count me in that closing prayer yep all over this room literally dozens and dozens up hand just slip it high put it up put it down select god no got god no thank you thank you thank you just scores of hands across this room come on together with one voice every person in this room everybody joined them to encourage them in this prayer say Jesus go say it out loud say Jesus I need you today I give my life to you forgive me today I'm turning around I'm gonna follow you with all of my heart be the Lord of my life number one in my life thank you for setting me free in your name I pray amen come on give the Lord a hand clap a praise together [Applause] you

Channel: New Life Church

Views: 29,982

Rating: 4.8530183 out of 5

Keywords: nlc, nlcarkansas, new life church

Id: OWMZFSlo6Ps

Length: 41min 4sec (2464 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 16 2018